37th Annual Student Research Conference
Didn't Know Any Better (Knowledge and Moral Responsibility)
Andrew H. Fruend
Dr. Chad Mohler, Faculty Mentor
When considering conditions that exempt people from moral blame we often consider a person's lack of knowledge as an excuse. We might think that some people who lack moral knowledge such as children are not morally accountable. On the other hand, we would like to hold adults morally blameworthy in cases where they are willingly ignorant or are expected to have moral knowledge. My paper argues that people are exempt from moral obligations if they didn't know about such obligations and could not have reasonably known. I defend this thesis against several objections and compare it to earlier viewpoints.
Keywords: Knowledge, Philosophy, Ethics
Topic(s):Philosophy & Religion
PHRE Senior Seminar
Presentation Type: Oral Presentation
Session: 402-4
Location: SUB Georgian Room A
Time: 2:45